Veteran American jazz singer, two-time Grammy Award winner Rickie Lee Jones, writing of her “secret [hotel] room in Paris,” equates her songs with rooms “or plays that take place in rooms… one night the stage is bare, one night it is filled with ghosts.”
That room, rather two entire floors, is dedicated to her in a very unusual hotel, the Triangle du d’Or in a quiet street in the heart of the Madeleine. All six floors are dedicated to internationally known musicians – with appropriate decor.
For instance, our room, on the second floor honouring French drummer Manu Katche, has a bedside table in the shape of a drum, gold drum cymbal light shades, desk like a keyboard, replicas of gold records on the shower wall.
And the hotel has “ghosts”: my wife and me. As young innocents more than 40 years ago, we had our honeymoon there; two Australians in London, one making his way in Fleet Street, just married in swinging Chelsea.
We booked the hotel, then called des Capucines, through the Bank of New South Wales (now Westpac) Travel Service and, nostalgically, returned four times over the past 20 years, always to the same room, No. 25.
We also sent our eldest son and his bride to the hotel on their honeymoon. Little had changed. Until now. The decor transformed from fading Parisian chintz to one more attuned with musos.
The old brass double bed replaced by an upmarket queen size, burgundy doona and matching curtains by charcoal drapes with complementing bedspread, floral carpet by grey-and-white star pattern, now silvery wallpaper, rickety wood-encased fridge by steel and glass unit, wide screen TV instead of box-like, wooden cabinet, state-of-the- art bathroom, air-conditioning rather than simply opening the window…
Some things, though, were the same. Across the road the adult shop with big red X, a block or two away, Fauchon’s with their wonderful chocolates and gourmet foods, further along, the Church of the Madeleine with its massive Corinthian columns built by Napoleon to the glory of the grand armee, opposite, the Cafe Madeleine, the furniture a little updated, with the same superb ham and cheese omelettes.
Remarkably, Fatima, the hotel receptionist, was still there, as she had been for the past 20 years, warmly welcoming and giving us the same discounts – and the same room. So, too, was Sri Lankan Antony in the breakfast room with his warm croissants, coffee and jams, a smile and few words, no doubt a little overwhelmed by the bright new musical decor around him.
The little caged lift still held only a few people, but no longer creaked; no one could tell us what happened to the Billecart Salmon champagne which survived display in a glass case in the lobby for all those years, the lobby itself up to the minute and efficient; on the walls earphones for guests to listen to the music of the renowned artists to whom the hotel is dedicated.
We meet owner Madame Patricia Blancher who with a partner has five other Parisian hotels. A music lover, she tells us the decor was designed in collaboration with the five artists and has been effective in attracting guests in Paris’ competitive hotel industry.
Of the hotel, American jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp, noted for his Afrocentric music, who has the third floor dedicated to him, wrote:
“I always wanted to own my own hotel and if I had succeeded, I would have liked it to be just like this one.
“Keep swinging all night long.”
And Rickie Lee Jones says: “I look forward to other musical ghosts that will inhabit the building… 50 years from today, I shall be there.”
We will be, too, in what will always be “our” hotel.
Visit Hotel du Triangle d’Or, 6 Rue Godot de Mauroy, 75009, Paris.
More information: hoteldutriangledor.com
